My friend Ramy, from INGcreatives is a stubborn guy.
He sees this wall everyday from his apartment and from his office too.
Ramy’s been trying to get this wall painted by an artist for over a year, and he didn’t stop until he finally got it.

I’m happy that I was the artist he had in mind once he got the permission, I’ve seen no walls like this before in Dubai, it was quite a exciting project.

We wanted to keep it all independent since the beginning, no branding, no events, no posing. Just art in a wall, but we needed some support.

INGcreatives managed to get it all organized and they even created a casual venue where people stopped by to see the progress of the wall, to chill with us and get some information about the project. Concordia, the company who runs the area, provided a cherry picker and some dirhams to buy the paint and Sam gave us a good price on the spray paint.

Everybody did their best to support this project expecting nothing in exchange. Thank you all. And then I just provided my work.

So yeah, this has been a project free of charge, just for the community. I hope you enjoy it.

photo credits to Diego and Ramy

My friend Erbil from StreetArt Istanbul invited me to visit his amazing city when we met in Dubai last year. He told me about the spots for painting and the activities at his studio Bitti Gitti, including screenprinting, book sharing, design, experiments with glowing paint, pinhole cameras and all kinds of DIY creative stuff.

Exciting, innit? That’s why I’m here.
Some first impressions of the city above.

Facebook contacted me to paint a wall in their brand new Middle East offices in a flashy 40th floor of a building in Media City, Dubai.
I made this artwork before the official opening, and it is a big mosaic of characters representing connectivity, islamic culture and what I really think of Facebook.

As usual, you meet interesting people while sharing endless nocturnal hours on spray fumes like Richard (or Ricardo), a security guard from Filipinas with an artist soul, he played some classic r'n'r tunes on my lil guitar while I was painting, we did some amazing duets like ‘The house of the rising sun’ and he also paints some impressionist art on his day off. Or CobraSnake (I never understood his real name), a cleaner from India who has two girlfriends, two of the guettoest tattoos I’ve ever seen and doesn’t eat things that make ’mooooooo’ or ’eeeeeick’ according to his religion.

Friendship has no landmarks.

Ajloon is a beautiful beige city in the north of Jordan, not too far from the Syrian border. There’s plastic bags and garbage everywhere, like in the rest of Jordan, but it’s nice.
Sometimes there’s beef between Jordanians and Syrians, but they generally get along with each other, building strong and interesting links. After seeing a few of this relationships, and also mines with Jordanians, Syrians and worldwide people during this trip I came out with this design. Khalas. 

Orange and lemon juice in Satwa, Dubai.

Mission accomplished.
One of my goals during my year of residency in Tashkeel was to paint a mural in the streets of Dubai.
In any other country, everything probably would have been easier but here graffiti or street art or whatever is heavily punished, actually I think this is the first and only mural that exists in the UAE (someone correct me if I’m wrong).

The process has not been easy. Since consequences of being busted painting here are no joke (and you need more than 10 minutes to paint this, set up a cherry picker, etc) you need a permission.
So after locating the spot by Jumeirah Beach Road (Anna!) we had to talk with the owner of the building, who luckily was open for the project since the first moment. Then with his ok, the Tashkeel crew were struggling with Dubai authorities day by day until we finally got their OK a few months later.

Keeping in mind that sedentary lifestyle is a big issue in this city, as well as the crazy unsustainability that involves most of its massive projects, I wanted this artwork, a local guy riding a bicicamel instead of a polluting car, while eating some healthy stuff, to be a wake up call for simplicity and sustainability to all the people living here (applicable to hundreds of other countries). I’m not really expecting any change with this, but that’s the message.

After spending the whole night painting this, I passed by the next day to take some photos and to speak with the neighbors about it (mostly shops and cafeterias). They look excited about it, even though they were kind of reluctant when they saw me painting the first lines. Late night visitors after closing their stores were also rewarded for their support with a quick lift in the cherry picker or with a few shots of spray on his guetto car to hide some scratches.
Now I’m getting free haircuts and lemon-mints on the area.

Big ups to Tashkeel: Bakhita, Haiya and Lateefa. Thanks for your company Jill, Sameena, Khaled and neighbors.

For your information, this is a personal project. There’s no brands nor any kind of payment related to this wall (or any others). Hope you like it Dubai peeps and i hope this will open doors for more public art projects.

Peace out!
R.

One last piece before leaving Barcelona, a skateboarder shaman in an abandoned factory.

Me gusta cuando callas porque estas como absenta.
Barcelona 2013

Red + Black + Tashkeel + a clean white wall + Estevan Oriol + guys skating around + David Choe + Dubai + myself + freestyle + a broken light

= amazing evening.

Behind every great man is a crazy woman.
Dubai 2013

More Bordeaux!

Lost in wrong planet.
Barcelona

Taking a walk with my homie Roberto Alegria we found this rock. I just give it some life, so now he can look at the nice view. Photo by Roberto

Installation for the Grafika Exhibition at Instituto Cervantes, Madrid (Spain).
October 2011.

Girl. Madrid 2011

Shutter painting for my boys at FTC Barcelona